Have you ever wondered what web hosting service a particular website uses?
A user recently inquired about how to find out who is hosting their website. Beginners who initially hired someone to set up their website frequently ask this question.
You should also look into who is hosting your competitor’s website. We’ll show you how to find out who is hosting a specific website in this article (using two methods).
Why is it important to know who is hosting a website?
Web hosting is required for all websites on the internet. This is where all of a website’s files are kept.
A domain name is not the same as website hosting. A domain name is a website’s address, such as wpexpertpro.com.
Because this information is publicly available, determining who hosts a website is not difficult.
You may need to know the website hosting service behind a website in a variety of situations.
- You had a website built for you by a WordPress developer. They either forgot to tell you who your web host is or you misplaced the information.
- You’ve had your WordPress website up and running for quite some time. You’re not sure who’s hosting it.
- You’ve come across a website that loads quickly and works admirably. You want to know who the host is so that you can take advantage of their services as well.
- You want to send a DMCA takedown notice to the host of another website that is stealing your content.
There are several methods for determining who is hosting a website. We’ll show you the two quickest techniques to figure out which hosting firm a website uses.
Method 1: Use the WPBeginner Theme Detector Tool to find a theme.
WordPress Theme Detector tool is a terrific method to figure out what WordPress theme is being used on a website. It also informs you of the website’s host.
Simply go to the WordPress Theme Detector Tool page and type in the website’s URL (domain name):
To proceed, click the ‘Analyze Website’ button.
You will see information about the website in a matter of seconds. This contains the hosting company’s name:
Here are a few names you might hear:
- These web pages are hosted by EIG (Endurance International Group). Bluehost and HostGator are both owned by EIG. They also own a number of smaller web hosting companies.
- DreamHost is a subsidiary of New Dream Network, LLC.
- GoDaddy owns Media Temple, which is a web hosting firm.
The theme detector might not be able to tell you who the host is in some circumstances. When a website uses a CDN service or a website firewall, for example.
Because these providers route all website traffic through their own servers, they will appear as the hosting provider in all hosting detector programs.
Cloudflare is a well-known CDN service. They provide a free CDN service that is used by a large number of websites.
Sucuri, a website security and firewall provider with its own CDN servers, is another option.
If you use the theme detector tool to check for wpbeginner.com, it will reveal Sucuri as the hosting provider.
If the theme detector doesn’t provide you with a clear response, the second method in this tutorial may be of use. It will demonstrate how to delve further into a website’s hosting firm.
Method 2: Who is Hosting a Website Using WHOIS Tools
Looking at a website’s WHOIS information is another approach to figuring out who is hosting it. WHOIS functions similarly to a public directory. It allows you to find out ‘who is in charge of a website.
What is Whois Information, and why is it important?
The majority of domain names on the internet are maintained by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). They provide a public directory of all website data, which includes information regarding the location of a website’s hosting.
This information is freely available, and there are numerous programs available to check up whois information on any website on the internet.
You must first go to WHOis.net. Then, to look it up, simply type in the website’s URL. Starting with the domain name, you’ll see a list of details:
All you have to do now is search for a ‘Name Server’ entry. This tells you who is in charge of the site’s hosting:
Dreamhost is the host in this scenario. Simply search for the nameserver on Google to find out what web host it belongs to.
It’s possible that you won’t always be able to locate the host information. Instead of nameservers, a CDN, such as Cloudflare, might be used.
Other Options for Locating a Website’s Host
These methods take a little longer to complete. However, if you can’t find the host using the preceding quick approaches, they’re worth a shot.
You could check your billing records for your own website. It’s likely that you’ve already been charged for hosting.
You could also get in touch with the person who set up your website. If you are unable to contact them, go over any previous correspondence they have sent you.
It can be difficult to figure out who hosts another person’s website.
To begin, look for information about the web host on the website. This might be in the bottom or on the About page. For example, our site is hosted by SiteGround, as seen in the WPBeginner footer:
If you are still unable to locate any information, you may wish to contact the website’s owner or editor.
Most websites provide a contact form that you may use to get in touch with them. Explain that you enjoy their website and are curious about who hosts it.
We hope that this article taught you how to figure out who is hosting a specific website.